U.S. jury deliberates in ex-Goldman banker’s 1MDB corruption trial

NEW YORK, April 8 (Reuters) – A U.S. jury resumed deliberations on Friday in the trial of a previous Goldman Sachs (GS.N) banker accused of assisting loot billions of bucks from Malaysia’s 1MDB sovereign prosperity fund.

Prosecutors say Roger Ng, Goldman Sachs Team Inc’s former leading financial investment banker for Malaysia, helped his then-boss Tim Leissner embezzle funds from the fund — which was started to pursue improvement initiatives in the Southeast Asian region — launder the proceeds and bribe officials to earn company for Goldman.

Ng, 49, has pleaded not responsible to conspiring to launder dollars and violating an anti-corruption legislation. His attorneys say Leissner, who pleaded responsible to very similar charges in 2018 and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors’ investigation, falsely implicated Ng in the hopes of getting a lenient sentence.

The charges stemmed from one of the biggest monetary scandals in background.

Prosecutors have stated Goldman helped 1MDB increase $6.5 billion via a few bond gross sales, but that $4.5 billion was diverted to government officers, bankers and their associates by way of bribes and kickbacks between 2009 and 2015.

Ng is the initially, and very likely only, human being to encounter demo in the United States in excess of the scheme. Goldman in 2020 paid a almost $3 billion fine and its Malaysian unit agreed to plead responsible.

Deliberations began on Tuesday after a virtually two-thirty day period demo in federal court docket in Brooklyn.

Jurors listened to 9 times of testimony from Leissner, who said he despatched Ng $35 million in kickbacks. Leissner reported the men agreed to explain to banking companies a “protect tale” that the funds was from a legit company enterprise involving their wives.

Ng’s spouse, Hwee Bin Lim, later testified for the protection that the small business enterprise was, in truth, reputable. She said she invested $6 million in the mid-2000s in a Chinese organization owned by the household of Leissner’s then-spouse, Judy Chan, and that the $35 million was her return on that expenditure.

Ng’s attorney, Marc Agnifilo, reported in his closing argument on Monday that Leissner could not be reliable. A prosecutor, Alixandra Smith, said in her summation that Leissner’s testimony was backed up by other proof.

Jho Low, a Malaysian financier and suspected mastermind of the plan, was indicted together with Ng in 2018 but remains at significant.

Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York enhancing by Jonathan Oatis

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